Cake of the... well, it's been a few months, hasn't it?

       So, it turns out that maintaining a new business AND a regularly kept blog is a real challenge! I apologize for the lengthy delay since my last post. If you want more frequent updates, like us on Facebook and follow our instagram account, I'm on those all the time!
     So, let's do a recap of some of my favorite cakes that I've decorated recently. Now, it should be noted, that some of these are not my original design, so I don't claim real ownership to all them. However, they are almost always tinkered with, if they are not my original concept.
      Without further delay, here are some of my favorite new cakes!

     This pretty little cake was for a classmate of mine. She was celebrating her adorable baby's first birthday! The theme was "Alice in Wonderland" and I loved the idea of doing a cake that wasn't just your every day topsy turvy, mad hatter take. This cake was not an original design, but I did alter it from being a 5 tiered wedding cake, to being a little more suitable for a baby's 1st birthday. I was really happy with how it came out.

      The DJ cake was a cute little birthday cake I made for one of our shop's neighbor's. She was celebrating around Thanksgiving, so the cake was her favorite fall flavor, pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing. Sadly, in a sitcom-worthy twist, it turned out that one of her party guests accidentally SAT ON THE CAKE! That's why you always take a photo before it leaves the shop!




   
     These next cakes were made for our Valentine's Day store window. I had a lot of fun making pretty, love-inspired cakes. I adore the simplicity of the pennant cake and I think it could work for a lot of really cool weddings. The "Be Mine" cake allowed me to play around with painting and developing a deep, rich tone of red and gold on the bottom tier.
I even snuck in our initials into the window by "carving" into the birch bark of our rustic wedding cake. It features some of my favorite flowers, peonies and tulips.

    Believe it or not, this brightly colored cake was actually for a baby shower! The mom-to-be has a lot of love for Mexican art and textiles, so her sister selected them as inspiration for the cake. I LOVE the idea of a baby shower that isn't just pastels. I had a lot of fun piping all the details on this cool little cake. Side note: This cake was also ordered by a former classmate of mine. GFS PRIDE FOREVER!

   For my final cake, I wanted to show off one of my super-favorites. I made this cake at the request of a wonderful event planner who found me through the owner of the shop next to ours. She was putting together a big celebration and really wanted the look of multiple cakes and cupcakes for her dessert table. These cakes, including the ruffles, are iced with buttercream and decorated with hand painted gold cake lace.  I made a few purple peonies to garnish the cake and I LOVE how it all came out. I really hope everyone at the party enjoyed them. Just like I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you would like to talk about designing your own wedding or birthday cake, you can contact us through our website at www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com. Also, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. I promise I am way better at keeping up with those!

In Defense of Fondant

A fondant covered cake, complete with fondant ruffles.

      In my last post I wrote a lot about buttercream icing. Today I wanted to talk about another type of icing all together: FONDANT! I love working with fondant and many of my cakes are covered in fondant (you can see pictures here). Sadly, fondant has gotten a bad reputation as of late.  It seems that lots of people love the look, but have this idea that it tastes terrible. I can't tell you how many people I've spoken to who say "I hate fondant! We DEFINITELY don't want fondant on our cake!" Well, today I'm going to make a controversial argument. A fondant cake can look great and taste great!

The center of this egg is also
fondant!

    You might be wondering "what exactly
 is fondant?" Fondant is a sugar based dough that can be kneaded, rolled thin, and smoothed over a cake. If you've ever seen a wedding cake with a super smooth look, it was probably covered with fondant. There are also different types of fondant. There is fondant that is stiff and intended to be rolled out and layered onto a cake and there is also fondant that is used in a more liquid form to create a glaze or a filling for a confection (picture the filling in a cadbury cream egg).
 

This is my favorite brand of fondant.

    You can try to make fondant yourself, it's basically just a ton of confectioners sugar, but it's sort of a nightmare to make and will probably either kill your mixer or your wrists. I prefer to buy mine (it's one of the few elements that we work with that we don't make ourselves. There are many different brands of fondant and some brands are better than others to work with or to eat. I find that the "Massa Ticino" fondant by Carma is both easy to use and tastes quite good! It's sweet without much additional flavor or an aftertaste, sort of like a marshmallow. It also holds up pretty well against high-humidity environment which can cause fondant to get slimy or melt if it absorbs too much moisture. It's definitely not the most affordable brand, but it's the one that I enjoy using and it has successfully converted many of the fondant-phobic into fondant-lovers (or at least they don't hate it anymore!)

Properly applied fondant is smooth
and has an even color tone.

      There are many reasons why it's a great idea to consider using fondant on your cake. It has a super smooth look that you just can't duplicate with buttercream. If you want a pure white cake, fondant is much whiter than buttercream (which is off-white). It is more resilient in the heat and can prevent your cake from melting or showing signs of melting. It provides more structure to a cake, particularly if you are going to be making a very large cake like a big wedding cake. It holds color better than buttercream icing, which means your black and orange halloween cake is less likely to stain the mouths of your guests. There are certain techniques and looks that are difficult or impossible to replicate in a different type of icing. Last but not least, some people even love the taste of a fondant!
   

A fondant sheeter rolls the fondant
out to the perfect thickness.

     Have I convinced you to give fondant a chance yet? Let me tell you how we use it, maybe that
will allay some of your fears.  We strongly recommend using fondant on any cakes larger than 2 tiers, especially if they are destined for a warm environment (which is anything above room temperature). We do this so that your cake will be safe and sound until it is served. Don't worry though, whenever we use fondant on a cake we always make sure that it sits on top of a nice, thick layer of vanilla buttercream icing. So you get the great flavor of the buttercream and the structure of the fondant. We also make sure to roll our fondant very thin with a sheeter (picture a giant pasta machine) so it doesn't affect the overall taste or texture of the cake very much.

Sean, my husband, is putting a crumb
coat on this cake.

    When I cover a cake with fondant I always start by giving the cake a nice, thick layer of buttercream icing. This is called the "crumb coat" and it seals all the crumbs into the cake and gives it super straight and smooth base. If you didn't crumb coat your cake with buttercream first, your fondant will probably look very lumpy and you may be able to see dark patches where your cake shows though. This is never a good look! Once you've crumbed your cake, put it it the fridge to let it set up like cold butter. This will help maintain your nice straight corners and sides. I usually begin to knead my fondant in confectioners sugar until I have a nice smooth ball. I squash it flat and begin to roll it out, either by hand or with the sheeter, until it is about 1/8" thick and wide enough to cover my cake completely. I use confectioner's sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking and I never flip it over to make sure the outer surface will be perfectly smooth and clean.

Not only is this cake covered
in a layer of fondant, but all
of the decorations are fondant
as well.

   
      This next part takes a little practice. I pick my fondant up and place it over my cake. I usually try to smooth the top down very quickly and then I smooth the fondant over the top 1" of the sides of the cake. It will look like a tablecloth, but if you carefully stretch the fondant while smoothing it against the sides of the cake you can work all the folds out until it is totally smooth without any rips, tears, divots or folds. Like I said, this takes some practice. I find that the taller a tier is, the more challenging it can be to smooth the sides without any marks. I also think it is easier to smooth a round cake than a square cake since it is more challenging to navigate the corners. If you have marks or aren't happy with the layer, you can carefully remove it, re-crumb your cake and try again. Another great hint is to use your decorating elements to hide any flaws you have. This can only do so much, though.

This close up of the house in
process shows how you can
texture fondant.

     Once the cake is successfully covered with fondant you can do all kinds of fun things to decorate it. You can pipe onto the cake with royal icing or buttercream. You an add texture to your cake with quilting, ruffles, crimpers, or an impression mat. You can paint directly onto your cake with an airbrush or by hand with buttercream or food coloring. You can roll out more fondant and cut out shapes, then stick them to your cake. You can also use fondant to make the decorations that will go onto you cake like figures, logos, molded items or even some flowers. It's a great way to make your decorations enjoyable to eat, as opposed to using gumpaste which is edible, but you really don't want to eat it.
 
    I hope I've convinced you that fondant can be a great addition to your cake. I really love working with it. Remember, if you still don't like it, you can just peel it off your slice of cake and stick to the buttercream!

The Beautiful World of Buttercreams!

These are some of our flavored buttercream icings!

   Let's talk about icing! There are many different types of icings in the world and each has it's own
different taste and application. There are a wide range of different textures and tastes and everyone has their favorite. Depending on where you live, you may be more familiar with one style over another. In fact, if you compare decorating cultures (for example, comparing the US to Great Britain) there can be extremely different approaches to how one should ice a cake and with what type of icing! There are buttercreams, fondant, cream cheese icing, gumpaste, royal icing, pastillage, marzipan, ganache, glazes, and modeling chocolate that can all be used to cover or decorate a cake! (To see some cakes that I've made and decorated with a variety of icings, check our www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com). Today, I'm going to focus on buttercreams and then I'll go over some of the other varieties in future posts.
 

A pre-made buttercream.
Not my favorite style of icing!

    I believe that when most people think about buttercream, they are usually thinking of that super sweet icing that you might find on a supermarket cake. Now, that icing has its place and its fans, but in my opinion, it's just not buttercream. I find it to be too sweet and frequently gritty (it's basically sugar, shortening and a bunch of preservatives and stabilizers). REAL buttercream is made with butter (duh). It should be sweet, but not tooth-achy sweet, smooth, creamy and light. It's best eaten at room temperature so that the icing has a chance to soften, otherwise it can be too much like eating a cold stick of butter. This is an extremely popular type of icing, but did you know there are many different styles of buttercream?

The real stuff!

 
    That's right, there are many varieties, among them "American Buttercream," "Italian Meringue," "Swiss Meringue," "French Meringue" and "French." "French Buttercream" is very rich as it is made with butter, sugar and egg yolks. "Italian Meringue Buttercream," French Meringue Buttercream" and "Swiss Meringue Buttercream" are made with a meringue base (egg whites) into which sugar and butter are added (they are named after the type of meringue used in the icing). Of course, you can leave it to us Americans to come up with the simplest style of buttercream, in our version, usually the butter is creamed with confectioner's sugar and then sometimes milk is added to make it smoother.

Yolks form the basis of French
Buttercream.

 
   Why would you need so many different styles of buttercream? Well, each one has different pros and cons. French buttercream is very rich, it's delicious but it can be too rich for a strongly flavored cake. It also has a tendency to be more yellow than other buttercreams thanks to the presence of the egg yolks in the pate a bombe base. It also has a tendency to be more susceptible to heat. It works best as a filling for cakes or other pastries that use buttercream. Another drawback to french buttercream is that it can be more difficult to make than other versions since it requires making a pate a bombe. It is also possible that the egg yolks will not reach a "food safe" temperature so it could be potentially risky in the same way that eating eggs over easy can be a little risky for certain populations. Given all the cons, I don't really make this buttercream, it's just not quite what I look for in an icing.

Our chocolate icing is
an American Style
Buttercream.

 
    If we swing the difficulty pendulum in the opposite direction we come to "American Buttercream." This is what many of our elders might have made for our birthday parties. You simply beat butter until it is creamy, add a whole lot of confectioner's sugar, a little vanilla, a little milk, then beat the crap out of it until it is smooth and silky. This buttercream is quite tasty, although it is definitely quite sweet. Not as sweet as the store bought stuff, but still pretty sweet. It is pretty easy to work with, but is also quite susceptible to heat. The chocolate icing we make is a variety on this style of buttercream (we add cocoa) but when it comes to our vanilla buttercream I like to make a meringue based version.

With Swiss Buttercream you heat
the egg whites and sugar together
over a water bath.

   
    There are three meringue based buttercreams. "French," "Italian," and "Swiss;" each are named after the style of meringue used to make the buttercream base. In all three versions, a meringue is made, and then room temperature butter is added in and whipped until it is silky smooth. You start with this airy meringue, then start to add your butter, and eventually you have this "oh crap!" moment when it breaks and it looks like it will never work, but then it magically starts to come back together and form a beautiful, smooth emulsion! In the "French" style, the you simply add dry sugar into you egg whites as they whip. The two big drawbacks of this style are that it isn't as stable as the other two AND since the whites are not cooked, it's not really up to US food safety standards.
 

In an Italian Buttercream the 240 F
sugar syrup is poured into the
egg whites to make a stable meringue.

 "Swiss Buttercream" is made by heating the egg whites and sugar together over a water bath until they reach a food safe temperature, then you whip the whole thing until it's voluminous and cool to the touch. This is the most food safe version of buttercream, but can take a little longer to make and is slightly less stable in heat than it's cousin, "Italian Buttercream." "Italian Buttercream" is the most stable buttercream because it is made from the most stable meringue. In this version, the sugar is cooked with water to the 240 F, then you pour the hot syrup into the whites as they whip and it forms a very strong meringue. This is the trickiest method to make, but I think it is worth it as the icing is great for decorating and it is food safe, delicious, sweet, and has a great mouth feel. This is my preferred icing and it is how I usually make my buttercream.
   
   All of these buttercreams can be flavored in a wide variety of ways. You can use jams, extracts, liquors, custards, pastes, chocolate and pretty much anything else as long as it can be blended into a high-fat emulsion. I do want to note, however, that when you add flavors, it can change the texture of your icing causing it to break or loosen if you add too much. You can adjust the consistency by adding more confectioner's sugar of liquid, but it's a delicate balance. You can see the full list of our flavors on our website www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com for some ideas.
 

Food colors can be added to make
the buttercream any shade you want!

 Real buttercream is naturally off-white or ivory thanks to the butter, but it's a really beautiful natural, soft shade.You can also color your buttercreams almost any shade in the rainbow! I find that gel colors work the best for buttercream as watery food colors don't really mix into the emulsion very well and give a spotted affect. Also, it's worth mentioning that if you are going to deep, intense colors, they can often come off on your guests lips as they eat, so fair warning if you are looking for an all-black wedding cake, you may be in for a surprise when you see your wedding photos!
   
   All true buttercreams have one major enemy, heat. They all have the potential to melt if they are being held in a hot environment like, say, an outdoor summer wedding. However, some of them are a little more stable than others in heat. They can also be tricky to work with in a hot kitchen where than can be loose and kind of frustrating. This is why many people use shortening as a base, it's more heat stable, but I just don't think it tastes as good as butter or has as nice a mouth feel as real butter. Another potential drawback for buttercream is that it can be a challenge to create a perfectly smooth, blemish-free surface. Also, there are some techniques that just can't be done with buttercream.  While I believe that buttercream is one of the best tasting icing options,  it does have its limits.  That's why it's important to consider using the other icing options in conjunction with the buttercream. Next time, we're going to talk about that controversial F-word: FONDANT!